


I pray for the ground to swallow me whole (Just Like Heaven)

by AnotherPhanficWriter



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Just Like Heaven au, M/M, POV Dan Howell, POV First Person, Phil Lester Is Not A YouTuber, Phil's in a coma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-11 21:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12944775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnotherPhanficWriter/pseuds/AnotherPhanficWriter
Summary: Dan is a recently dumped Youtuber moving into a new apartment in Manchester. But the apartment isn't entirely empty; it's haunted by the ghost of a man named Phil. And although Phil can't remember much about his life, he's convinced that he isn't really dead. In Phil's 'previous life', he worked in Tesco, with only a couple of close friends, no one even knew his name. But now he's in a coma and his spirit is trapped in his house that now belongs to someone else. Will he remember what his life was like and more importantly, what can break this curse? While Dan recruits PJ, his friend who's slightly sceptic about ‘Phil’, to get to the bottom of Phil’s identity, he and Phil begin to fall in love.





	I pray for the ground to swallow me whole (Just Like Heaven)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Fanfiction I've ever wrote. SHOCK HORROR.  
> Anyway, an anon sent this prompt to me on tumblr  
> (my tumblr is phanaremygaychildren),  
> It's loosely based on the movie Just Like Heaven. If you haven't watched it don't worry, you don't need to but ITS AMAZING, WHY HAVEN'T YOU WATCHED IT?  
> Leave a comment, Drop a kudos and ENJOY!  
> Title taken from a song called Snakes by Bastille (Listen to it, it's good. In fact - listen to the whole album)  
> (Just in case you're worried about the original character - she's only mentioned and the original male character is not really original but lifted from the movie (Darryl))  
> I did get someone to Beta for me but they only have a B in English GCSE so the SPaG might still be a bit off.

It was a Monday I got the call. She couldn't even be bothered to do it face to face. I mean, I shouldn't have expected much. I'd been ignoring her since she said she wanted space and I knew 'space' didn't exactly mean space. It meant breaking up. I wasn't in love with her anymore but the way she said she didn't love me and hadn't ever really loved me made me want to leave my busy London life and move somewhere quieter. I've heard the countryside can be quite nice this time of year. 

"So you're actually moving?", PJ asked, silently watching me pack all my things in big brown boxes. "Yup, I need to get away from Lorna, we're bound to run into each other", I huffed as I ran around the apartment, pulling things willy nilly from cupboards. "But, London's big?", PJ asked. "I need to get far away, somewhere tranquil", I tried to justify. "And Manchester's tranquil? Have you been to Manchester?", PJ chuckled. That sarcastic shit. "Look, a friend told me there's a nice flat to let near where she lives and its a good price so if you have anything else to say, don't". I huffed and walked out the room to get my last few things from my bedroom. "But isn't this a bit sudden? Lorna only dumped you a week ago, she could still change her mind!", I heard PJ shout from the other room. 

After grabbing the last few things, I returned to a sad looking PJ. "We haven't been together properly for weeks, we hadn't even had a proper conversation for months, I doubt she'd change her mind", I argued while shoving the last few things in a box, "and even if she did take me back, who's to say I'd let her?", I said then left the conversation at that. 

After having some lunch out of the house with PJ and a few other YouTube friends, I made my way back up to my flat for the last time. One more night and I'd be able to bury my head in the sand. 

^^

The next morning went in a haze: Getting up at 6 in the morning, packing all my things in PJ's car and making the 3 hour journey to a new town, a new life. A fresh start. 

When we arrived at the new flat, I met the guy who was renting it to me called Martin who looked kind of upset. I wanted to ask why he was so upset, but decided not to ask. 

He showed me around and I signed the papers. 

PJ stayed to help unpack a little and then he left because 'the place gave him the chills'. 

After settling down I sat on the sofa and grabbed my laptop, pulling up all my social media's and checking my YouTube subscriber count. It had increased since last time - almost 7 million. The fans didn't know yet about me and Lorna. They knew we were dating but I hadn't told them we split. A lot of them would be happy, Lorna often made comments about the fans being stalkers. I quickly typed out a tweet to let them all know they wouldn't be getting a video this week due to the move and I closed my laptop and slid down the sofa to get comfy. 

It was a really nice sofa. Within a few minutes I was falling to sleep. But a few hours later I woke up to shouting. That was funny, it sounded like it was coming from behind me. I quickly turned around and saw a pale man screaming to himself. 

"What the fuck?!", I shouted, jumping up and preparing myself for attack. "What do you mean? You're the one in MY apartment!", the man shouted back. "There's got to be a mistake, I signed the papers this morning, I have them here somewhere", I said, moving around the flat. "No, stop right there. I'm phoning the police", the man said. "No, please. There's been a mistake!", I insisted but the guy ran straight over to the phone, I quickly followed to try to convince him the flat was mine. "Stay back", he warned then he grabbed at the phone. 

"Huh?", he huffed. His hand went straight through the phone. "What did you do to my phone?", he said as he hopelessly tried to pick up his phone. "Me? I didn't do anything, I only got here this morning and now I've got a crazy guy running about my apartment...", I said. "Me? Crazy guy? You're the crazy one, this is mine!", he screamed then ran off towards the other end of the flat. I quickly ran after him to stop him phoning the police but I couldn't find him. I searched the whole flat but he wasn't anywhere. 

What a strange, realistic dream. I need to stop spending half my night on tumblr.

^^

It had been a few days with no strange appearances from my too vivid dreams. On the fifth day, I woke up at around noon to phone PJ. He'd know what was wrong. 

"What do you mean you saw a man running around your new flat?", it had been a couple of hours since I got up, having to do another lap of the flat and then make a call to the landlord, Martin, to ask a few questions who was not at all helpful. 

"I saw a man, maybe around our age, with black hair. And he was shouting that I was in his apartment. What are you struggling to understand?", I sighed over the phone. "Were you burgled last night?", PJ asked. "No, he disappeared", I hummed, feeling a bit stupid. "He disappeared? Dan, it was probably just your imagination?", PJ had a point. When I woke up it was like it was a dream, like I never actually saw the guy. Maybe I'm crazy, hallucinating. "Urgh, this apartment is freaky, it constantly feels like someone is behind me", I groaned back. "Dan, it can't be that bad. Hey, maybe the landlord knows something?", PJ asked. "Ha, no. Already asked. He said the last tenant was in the hospital and he didn't have any problems with the apartment", and after PJ had stopped trying to convince me it was my dream, I told him I'd talk to him later and I popped out to the local supermarket.

^^

After I got back from Tesco I started putting the groceries away and then I heard a loud sigh coming from my bedroom. I grabbed a family box of crunchy nut ready to, well, who was I kidding? Throw at the offender then make a run for it. "Who's in here?", I asked, feeling stupid because as if a burglar just answered with 'ooh, yes. Its me'. But strangely, this burglar was not your average one. 

"Err, me?", a voice came, followed by the man from the other night. "Oh, it's you. What have I told you about coming into this flat? It's mine", I sighed. Wondering why I even bothered asking. "This place is mine, not yours. Are you lost or just a really stupid squatter squatting in a flat that's being used?", the man asked, looking extremely annoyed but also attractive in a vampire-y, ghostly way (this guy was so pale). "I am not lost, I signed the contract yesterday with Martin and..", before I could get my sentence out I was rudely interrupted. "Martin? Rings a bell", the guy said. "Look, I'll phone him now and ask him if there's been a mix-up, what's your name?", I asked, pulling out my phone from my pocket. The guy stared at his feet. "Errrm", he said after a minute. "That's not a name.", I retorted sarcastically. "It's... ", the man started looking around and then his face dropped. "I honestly can't remember, have you given me a drug that made me forget my name?" The man asked, as if this was the only logical explanation. "Do you have temporary memory loss or something?", i asked, but immediately regretted it upon seeing his sad face. "How about I say the alphabet?", I suggested, still feeling a bit bad for causing this beautiful man to pull such a sad face. "Ok", was all he said before he closed his eyes. 

"A... B... C... D... E... F... G... H... I... J... K... L... M... N... O...", before I got to 'P' the man shouted at me to stop. "Phil. My name's Phil", was all the guy said before he got up and walked towards the other end of the apartment. "Well, I'll phone Martin and see if he knows what the mix-up is, shall I?", I shouted off into the distance. The man, Phil, didn't reply. I searched the flat and he had disappeared again. "What. The HELL?", I said to the empty corridor, trying to figure out how he escaped.

After that weird meeting I phoned PJ to update him on my apparent dreams. "PJ. He said his name was Phil". I swallowed as soon as he picked up. "Huh?", he questioned, clearly not having much of a clue what was going on. "My 'imagination' apparently. That guy I saw, he told me his name was Phil. Then he disappeared again", I huffed out. "Dan, are you on something? Hallucination could be a side effect", PJ chuckled as if it was something funny but also a low key amount of worry. "PJ. What if he's a ghost or something?", I rushed out, probably sounding psychotic in the process. "Ghosts don't exist! It's just your imagination, mine can be a bit crazy too". PJ explained, sounding more sane than Dan did. "Get some sleep, Dan. That'll probably be what you need", PJ said before hanging up.

^^

Deciding to have a long soak in the bath; pouring in all the fancy bubble baths I hadn't got around to use, I took all my candles in the bathroom and lit them. My head is actually mixed up. If PJ was right and I was imagining Phil, well there was one question I needed the answer to: Why am I imagining a guy called Phil who wants me to leave the flat? Have I officially lost it? 

After having an hour in the bath, I got up and wrapped my hair in a separate towel, reaching for another one to wrap around my body. "Ohh, shit". I swore out loud. I must have forgotten to grab another towel to wrap around my body. I walked out the bathroom and along the corridor to my bedroom, which was right by the kitchen, which had the imaginary man in. "Oh!", he squealed. "I can do this, you aren't actually there", I hummed. Walking stark naked around the kitchen to grab some crunchy nut, Phil stared at me. "I mean, if you want to... I won't stop you", he said, blatantly staring at my arse. I walked into the bedroom to grab a dressing gown to cover up. Even if he was imaginary, I didn't like the thought of being naked in my rented apartment.

"It would be me, wouldn't it, to imagine someone flirting with me?", I face palmed, when I walked back in, continuing my pursuit of crunchy nut. "Me? Imaginary?", Phil laughed, sticking his tongue out. He kinda looked adorable. "Adorable, ay?", he asked, raising his left eyebrow. "So my imaginary nuisance reads my mind, great", I huffed, sitting at the table with my bowl of crunchy nut. "I think I've figured out what's going on", Phil said, looking sad. "What?", I asked, with a mouth full of crunchy nut. "I think I'm dead", Phil said, as I spat all my cereal out everywhere. "Dead? As in, you were living and now your haunting me? Great", I eye-rolled. "Look, first thing I see when I wake up is flashing lights like an ambulance and I can hear glass smashing. And then it's white and then I'm back here", he spoke staring at his hands. "I think I died in a car accident, I never was really that good at driving", Phil smiled sadly, tears dripping down his face. "I'm gonna go, you clearly don't believe me", he said before disappearing down the corridor. "Wait...", I said a second to late. I wrapped my dressing gown further around myself.

^^

Having to decide to go to bed instead of go on tumblr for 6 hours as PJ insisted, I was awake at 7am. My sleep-wake cycle was surely damaged. I searched around the apartment then remembered that I was going to phone the landlord about Phil. He might know something, maybe he could clear it up and verify the fact I've got absolutely crazy. 

"Hi Martin! I was wondering if you knew anything about someone called Phil?", I asked, picking up the courage to just come out with it. "Oh. Louise from 3C's been gossiping again", he sighed sadly. "No, I haven't spoken to Louise, but back to Phil-", "Look, Phil was the pervious tenant and he's in hospital. I told you the other day when you asked. Now, please stop calling me with nuisances", Martin said before abruptly ending the phone call. 

Was this guy the same guy? As in Phil 'the ghost' was the previous tenant in hospital? After figuring out that Martin was pretty much unhelpful in my investigation, I decided to see if that gossiper in 3C would provide me with answers. 

^^

"So, can you tell me anything about a Phil that lives upstairs?", I asked a short blonde woman when she answered the door. "Usually I wouldn't let strangers into my home, but pretty ones like you I'll accept. Come in", she smiled. She seemed pretty nice. 

"So, Phil. Well. He worked at the Tesco down the road, didn't have a lot of friends, he was in a massive car crash recently - I think he tried to swerve a badger? - and he's in hospital", she hummed quickly while pottering around the kitchen. "Two sugars and milk?", she asked. I agreed not really knowing what she was asking. 

"Are you the new guy, then?", she asked when she placed the mugs down on a little table. "Yh. Is that guy okay?", I asked. "Well, from what I heard from his brother - Martin - he's been in a coma for the past month", she said sadly, sipping her hot tea. "It must be bad if Martin decided to rent out the apartment", she whispered. 

Out the corner of my eye, I saw him, he must have been here the whole time. He stared at me, tears streaming down his face. Louise noticed I weren't paying attention to her so she turned around. "Is there something wrong with my door? You're staring at it?", she asked, with a confused frown. I looked down at the half empty cup of tea in my hands and looked back up and he'd gone. Why couldn't she see him and I could? Maybe he was a ghost only I could see, stuck in-between worlds at least. 

"Erm, no. I was just trying to remember the time and look at that", I stared at my imaginary watch, " I really need to get going, thanks for the tea!", I shouted as I ran back up to my apartment. Hopefully Phil would be waiting for me.

I opened my front door, shouting Phil's name as I walked in. I couldn't miss the sobbing mess his body made on my sofa. "I'm dead! I knew it", he cried into a pillow, wiping his snot all over it. "You're not! You're in a coma", I said walking over to reassure him. When did it get to this point?

I touched his back and rubbed. "I felt that", he cried into his pillow. "What did you say?". I asked. This time he lifted his head. "I said, I felt that", his voice wavered slightly towards the end as his bright blue eyes stared right into my eyes. "And?", I asked. "I'm a ghost, I would assume I shouldn't feel when people touch me", he said leaning into my touch. "Why should you assume that? I'm the only person you've come into contact with aren't I?", I asked, feeling strangely jealous. 

"Well, yeah. But-". "Exactly", I cut him off. "Have you tried leaving the building since you...?", I asked. Phil shook his head. "Well, come shopping with me!", I said, his face looking a bit worried. "It'll be like a test", I said, trying to persuade him. 

"Right. Where would we go?", he scoffed, this man clearly didn't understand how fun a day out could be. "Errrm, how about Tesco's? I've got to get some more cereal", as soon as I made the excuse there was no way out. The real reason being the whole Tesco shopping trip was because that girl, Louise, had mentioned he worked there. Maybe he'd remember more being in a place he worked? 

"Tesco actually sounds ok, and sorry about the cereal - crunchy nut is addictive". He chuckled, sticking his tongue out a little. DAMN THAT CUTE TONGUE.

After we got ready, and by ready I mean I threw a jacket on and Phil stood in the kitchen trying to pick things up and failing miserably, we started the walk to Tesco. The first test: See if anyone else saw Phil.

"So, you need to bump into people", I said as we walked out of the apartment building. "I can't! That's so rude", Phil argued. "No, you need to do this".

As if a switch turned on, Phil stepped in front of a man on his phone but the man completely went through him. He tried again to see if that was a one off. This time picking a short old lady. She slowly shuffled through Phil's body with no qualms. 

"Only you can see me and you are the only person I can touch", he said, making his way back over to me. "Well, if we are still going to Tesco's...?", I stared at Phil till he nodded in conformation that we would still go to Tesco. "I will have to hold my phone up to my ear so it doesn't look like I'm going mad", I said as I reached into my bag and pulled my phone out. 

I talked normally and not in the hushed tones we were before because now I had the phone. 

When we walked in Tesco, Phil looked around. He spotted a worker wearing his Tesco uniform. "Dan. I don't like it in here", he said pulling on Dan's arm to get him to go back out the shop. "Why? What's wrong?", I asked, stepping forward to make my way to the cereal aisle. "I recognise the people, it's just... I don't know who they actually are, just that I know them", he sniffled, becoming more and more emotional as they passed more workers. 

"Phil. Do you think you were happy when you worked here?", I asked, biting the bullet. "No. That I remember. I was miserable everyday. I got paid just enough to afford the flat and no one barely remembered my name", he looked down at his hands but it was becoming clear he really didn't want to be here. "I didn't have any friends. No one invited me out anywhere. I just sat in the flat alone watching tv and eating". And that was all I had to hear before I looked into his eyes and, still speaking into the phone, cleared my throat ready for this speech. "Phil, you are my friend. We may have only just met and in the weirdest of circumstances but there's something about you that tells me you're more than just 'phil the Tesco worker'. You're amazing, Phil". I smiled, making Phil cheer up a bit. 

"Now, let's buy this cereal and get outta here". I said, letting my hand brush against his for a second. Hearing a shocked little noise burst from the boy's lips, I turned my head slightly to see his cheeks turn a slight baby pink. That's the most colour I'd seen in his face since meeting him.

^^  
When we got back to the flat, I started saying my goodbyes to Phil. "How do you know you've got to go?", I asked him after he said he'd got to go. "It's not like that, it's more like I don't have enough energy to stay down here so I've got to go to sleep", he said, making his way to the corridor. "I'll be back later. Bye Dan", Phil waved as he walked down the corridor. "Bye Phil". 

I sat down on my couch and pulled my laptop out. Scrolling through tumblr with no purpose except to find something to distract me from the sadness I felt from Phil leaving me through his ghostly portal. After searching the danisnotonfire tag on tumblr, I realised I hadn't done a video in a while. Not since before Lorna broke up with me. I decided to do a quick check through the YouTube tags to see if there was a challenge I could do. But there was nothing that really interested me so I landed on doing a little apartment tour, even if it was pointless as this was only a temporary thing. 

I set the camera up and filmed my intro.

"Hey, guys. So if you don't already know, I may have moved out of London for a bit. Just to escape the inevitability of death and I'm living in a little flat in Manchester for a little while. Seen as you guys are constantly tweeting me to do an apartment tour, this can be the temporary apartment tour. Yaay", I got up and lent over to stop filming. I stretched and started downloading what I'd got for the video so far. 

To get it over and done with I quickly ran around the flat, filming a minute or two in each room and telling a little anecdote about each room. (Including the bedroom, which I said was where all the action happened - but obviously because it was my video background and not just my bedroom). 

I filmed the outro straight after filming the main part of the video and downloaded all that to my laptop ready for editing later. 

I made a point of eating a bit earlier than I usually did, so I could have a few hours of pure editing and then maybe watch an anime.

After quickly eating a pizza I threw in the oven and quickly editing the video, which I'd finish off tomorrow before uploading, I sat down to watch an anime with a glass of red wine. 

Before the ending I fell asleep thinking about Phil and what could be done before he finally went to heaven and left earth for good. 

^^

The next day I woke up with a bitter taste in my mouth and the feeling of dread. Phil was going to go away when they switched his life support off. I knew I had to do something. 

Quickly checking the apartment to see if Phil was around, I grabbed my laptop to stalk Martin, Phil's brother and my landlord, on facebook. I successfully found his page and from that I found out what hospital Phil was in. I grabbed my phone and phoned the only person who would be insane enough to help go through with the plan I was cooking up, PJ. 

"So you're telling me you need to get a person's body and steal it from the hospital?", PJ asked, his voice wavering slightly over the phone. "Essentially, yes. But it's Phil's body", I replied, still typing away on my laptop. "But, Dan... Phil isn't real", he whispered lightly as if he didn't want to startle me like I was a deer. "Just. Can you get down here?" I asked, feeling desperate. "I'll be down there tomorrow morning", was all he said before hanging up. Thank god I had good friends to help me with crazy plans. 

After finishing the editing of my video I uploaded it. My twitter started blowing up because the subscribers weren't expecting a video at this time and they were expectedly freaking out. It was barely lunch time.

^^

After hanging around for a few hours, Phil appeared. "Dan", he said before sitting down next to Dan. "Phil", Dan said before putting his laptop down and turned to Phil. "You're planning something. I can sense it", the strange man sniffed the air as if his nose could detect things. 

"Phil. What would you say if I said I was going to save you?", I whispered to him, holding his hands. "I'd say you're crazy, because there's nothing you can do, Dan", he sighed, he'd clearly given up but I wasn't. 

"But, Phil. I've been researching and I think I know what we need to do to help you", I said, pulling my laptop back up and showing Phil a page on a website that I'd been reading. "Dan. Help me? You mean, like. Go? Die?", Phil whispered looking at his hands. 

"Well, the website says you'll pass onto the afterlife or you'll wake up but we have to prepare for both", I said, taking a big breath. I really didn't want Phil to go but if it was to happen, I knew he'd be going to a better place and moving on. 

"What's the plan, then?", Phil smiled, I noticed the smile didn't quite meet his eyes. He didn't want to go either.

"You need to re-attach yourself to your body somehow. I think we need to pay a visit to the hospital". I clicked off the website and stared at Phil. His skin had already started fading slightly. Almost translucent. 

"How do we find out which hospital I'm in?", Phil asked, bouncing his finger tips off his knee. 

"I stalked your brother on facebook, I can get us an uber", I mumbled, feeling slightly embarrassed. "Oh! Martin?", Phil said, not really fazed by Dan admitting he'd been stalking his brother on facebook. "Yh, he looks like you", I smiled. Phil smiled back, but it weren't a Phil smile. It was too sad. "Except... You're fitter", I said in hopes it would cheer him up, not that it was a lie. Phil was so beautiful. He had such a nice face and I'm sure he'd be even more gorgeous in his real body. After all, he's kinda half not there. 

"Th-thanks", Phil squealed, his face going a slight red. "You're kinda cute, I've seen you're naked body and.. Yh", Phil uttered, his face blushing more and more as the time went on. "I forgot about that...", I laughed. 

"Shall we get that taxi?", I asked Phil. He nodded and I whipped out my phone and booked us an uber to the hospital. 

I wasn't sure what we would use to get in the hospital and what I would say to actually let me through, but I felt a step closer to maybe getting Phil and to be able to touch him. The real Phil. Not ghost Phil.

^^

'Hello, do you know which room Phil Lester is in? Good morning, can you help me find Phil Lester's room? Hi, I'm Phil Lester's... friend, can you tell me where he is?', I practiced in my head on the way to the hospital as to how I'd get in to Phil's room. I'd arranged to meet PJ there tomorrow as this was really just a trial run but I hadn't told Phil much of the plan yet, partially because I weren't sure PJ would turn up and what might happen at this trial. I looked over at Phil sitting next to me in the car, he had squished himself up next to me so I could lightly feel his thigh against mine; any closer and his thigh might have gone completely through my thigh. His skin was getting more and more transparent as the time went on. I knew we were running out of time. 

"So, what's the plan?", Phil whispered in my ear, it being pointless of course, this uber driver couldn't see or hear Phil. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and typed on notes.

'we'll go in there and take it from there, yh?' I typed.

Phil read the text carefully. "What do we do if they don't let us see me?", he asked, still whispering slightly. 

'not sure. just let me do my thing ;-)'

Phil read the text again, this time slumping back down beside me instead of staying squished against me. "Not much of a plan", he muttered under his breath. 

I turned my phone off and slid it back in my pocket, the hospital was coming into view.

^^

"Hello", I stuttered to the receptionist. "Oh, Hello. Who are you here to see?", a lady at the reception desk said. "Phil. Phil Lester", I swallowed, I started getting sweaty palms, which made Phil hold on to my hand. His slightly cold exterior cooled my skin. 

"Right. Are you family?", the women asked, getting impatient. "Yes, I'm his boyfriend", I lied, hoping it didn't look like I had lied. Phil's hand was still in mine, this time he was clenching harder. 

The women looked me up and down before muttering something about checking with her manager. I leant on the desk and looked at Phil. He was looking down the corridor and hadn't looked at me yet. 

"Phil", I spoke quietly to get his attention but not get people looking at me. "Huh? Oh, sorry. I'm here", he said looking at Dan's face before picking at the loose threads on his shirt. I was about to reach out to stop his picking at his shirt when the lady came back. 

"We usually don't let anyone except immediate family visit patients but due to the situation we'll allow it", the women explained, smiling awkwardly. 

She told me where Phil was and directed me towards his room. 

It took me a while but with a hesitant Phil I found the room and slowly pushed the door open. 

I breathed deeply and nearly let out a sob. Phil's body was just there, almost lifeless with things sticking into his body. Phil walked over to his body. "What's the plan, Dan?", he sniffed. Seeing his body had clearly upset him. 

"I think we need to lie you down on your body so your soul and body can be linked again. Hopefully this'll work", I shuffled so that Phil could get closer to his body. 

"Right. Erm. Do I just... lie down?", he asked. I nodded waiting to see if Phil would get his body to wake up. 

The man touched his body and then climbed up and lied down, his ghostly figure completed swallowed by the comatose body. After a few minutes, it clearly weren't working. Ghost Phil lifted his soul and sat beside his body. "It didn't work", Phil whispered. This time with tears falling down his face. 

"We'll figure something out, Phil", I thought out loud. I rubbed the back of Phil's body's hand, knowing that if I rubbed ghost Phil's hand, my hand would most likely fall through. Phil's breath stilled. "I feel that as if you were actually touching my hand", he whispered, pulling his hand to his face. "At least it shows you're still connected", I said, as if I had a clue what was going on. 

"Let's go back to the flat", I yawned.  
When we got back to the flat Phil said his goodbyes.

"I'm really tired, Dan. I'll see you tomorrow, nice and early", he smiled. "Bye Phil", I smiled, before letting him walk down the corridor. That still kinda creeped me out.

I made some food to eat: A microwave pizza, and sat down to read the comments on my last video on my laptop.

What with all this Phil business, it really kept my mind off Lorna. But the comments consisted a lot about Lorna and our break-up. She must have tweeted or something to let people know. I checked and I was right. 

'Hi peeps. I think you know what's coming. Me and Daniel Howell have split up. Please don't comment about this, I still need a few days to get used to things. Heartbroken'.

That was from last night. She made it sound like I dumped her and that was what many of the hateful comments were talking about. I slammed the laptop on the table, not caring much about either of the items and stomped off to the kitchen. 

I gulped down a glass of water, followed by another glass of water.

"ARGH", I shouted. But then I heard knocking at the door, first timid and then getting harsher. It was nearly 9pm and anyone who knows me knows not to disturb me at that time. Who could it be? 

"Dan, let me in", I heard a muffled PJ speak. I let out a sing of relief then went to open the door, but PJ was not alone. "Well, seen as you had a ghost problem", PJ chuckled, clearly not taking the situation as seriously as he should have been. "I bought Darryl with me. Dan, Darryl. Darryl, Dan.", pointing at the guy standing next to him. 

"Darryl, here, specialises in spirits. Or so he has told me", PJ hummed. The guy, who looked tired, was staring at the door, lightly rubbing his fingertips down the wood. "PJ, is he high?", I whispered through clenched teeth. "Probably. But he said he can help", PJ smiled. 

"Duuuude", the guy spoke up, "I can definitely sense an energy, but don't you worry. It's a nice one", the guy said, stepping into my flat without asking or being told to. PJ followed. I shut the door behind me and sat down on my sofa. 

"So. Where's the ghost?", PJ questioned, giving the room a quickly look over. "He went to go rest", I supplied. Not giving him much answers seen as he'd bought with him a weird guy. "Oh! Did he go, then?", he turned to me. 

"Bro, this ghost is here. I can sense him", Darryl shouted from the kitchen. I shut my mouth, not even bothering to check what this Darryl was doing to my kitchen.

After a few minutes of cluttering, I heard Darryl finally settle. He clearly was having his drug come down or something. "I'm here. Can you see me?", I heard a little whisper come from the kitchen. Hang on. "Phil!", I jumped when I stepped in the kitchen. 

"Hey Dan", he smiled lightly, then proceeded to look down at this strange man sitting on my kitchen floor. "He's here, dude", the guy breathed. "Can you see him?", I asked, not believing one bit that this guy was serious. "No, I sense him", he looked at Phil. Right in his eyes. "Dan. He's looking at me", Phil swallowed. 

"Darryl, look at me", at that the guy slowly looked away from Phil and to Dan. "Can you even help or are you just going to sleep in the kitchen?", I huffed, getting pissed off that this guy was probably wasting my time. 

"Bro, I'm here to help", he smiled and then sat down next to PJ, who had made himself at home whilst he was waiting. 

I explained quickly what the situation with Phil was, how he's a ghost, he's in a coma, the failed attempt at reattaching his soul and body; everything. 

"The problem with this isn't that Phil's soul is no longer attached to his body. It's that he's attached to something, or someone, else", Darryl explained, taking a breath to let it sink in to Dan. "I think he was attached to this apartment, but then you came and now he's attached to you, Dan", he whispered, glancing over in the space where Phil was standing beside me. 

"So we have to... detach his soul from me and attach it back to his body?", I asked. "Yup", the guy popped the 'p' and then slumped down, seemingly to sleep on my sofa. 

"How?", I asked the guy. "That, dude, I don't know the answer to", he yawned slowly, then carried on with the task at hand; falling to sleep. 

PJ had already fallen to sleep earlier, the long drive over here must be having an affect. 

"What do we do, Phil?", I looked at him. His face said it all: He had no idea. Instead he curled up on the only sofa available, a beat-up recliner that has seen better days, and patted the space by him for me to slot into. We were barely touching due to the whole 'Phil-is-a-ghost' thing, but I could feel him there. I started to think about how much better it would feel if Phil was actually here and not a ghost and I let a few tears fall. 

There had to be something we could do, but due to my tired state I couldn't think, so I let myself drift off into sleep. 

^^

The next morning, Phil weren't there but I figured he had to 're-charge' or whatever he did when he disappeared. PJ was sitting in the kitchen sipping a cup of tea and Darryl was reading a book he'd stolen from my bookcase. I grunted and then opened my eyes a bit wider. 

"Hey, dude", Darryl waved, not taking his eyes away from the book. "I feel like I'm going to vomit", I announced to the mostly silent room before rushing to the toilet. 

"Duuude, you need better books, this Shakespeare guy is pretty depressing", I heard Darryl commenting. After emptying my stomach, I sat down next to PJ in the kitchen. 

"So, I'm guessing we have a plan of action?", PJ asked, not lifting his head up from his phone. "Not yet", I sighed, getting myself a glass of water. "Did Darryl not tell you what he said?", PJ looked up, throwing a balled up piece of paper at the weirdo stealing my books. 

"Darryl, did you tell Dan about the apartment... Exorcism?", PJ asked. "PJ, PJ. PJ. It's not an exorcism, bro. It's like a cleansing that could detach ghostie from curly hair and back to his rightful body", Darryl explained, walking into the kitchen with my copy Romeo and Juliet still in his hands. 

"How do we do that?", I asked, having a bit of hope. "I asked around and some of my bros think you need to bring the body back to the original place of attachment with the soul. But I can't be sure that'll work, dude". He said before going into my fridge and pulling out my only bar of chocolate. 

"PJ, you need to help me".

^^

After formulating a plan with a less than convinced PJ, we sat around waiting for Phil to appear. I still had no idea how this worked so I walked in the kitchen quietly saying his name. "He's coming, bro, can't you feel it? I'm gonna shoot, dude. Hope this all goes well. Bye Peej", Darryl shouted before letting himself out.

"Bye, Darryl!", PJ shouted before the man left.

"Dan! Is that creepy guy gone?", Phil asked as he appeared slowly, his body virtually see through now; we were running out of time. "Yeah, wanna sit down in the living area while we discuss our plan?", I asked, walking off into the direction of my living room. 

"Dan, is ghostie here yet?", PJ asked, around a mouthful of crisps. What was it with everyone stealing my food? 

"Don't call him that, his name is Phil, and yes, he's here", I said, hitting PJ lightly on the shoulder. "Right. Let's go through this plan, then?". PJ hesitated, spinning around to face me. 

I sat down and looked at Phil, "So. We are taking your body from the hospital and bringing it back here", I said, Phil gasped slightly at the notion of taking his body from the hospital. "And then we'll perform a tiny ritual of some sorts to separate your soul from mine and attach it back to your body. Hopefully, you'll wake up", I said, wiping my sweaty hands on my jeans. "And if I don't?", Phil hesitated. "It won't fail, Phil. Trust me", I said, holding my hands out to touch his.

"Okay, so are we doing this?", PJ asked, still a bit stunned about the very one sided conversation he just witnessed.

"Let's do it", Phil whispered, responding to my touch.  
When we arrived at the hospital, we left PJ sitting in a waiting room. The plan was he'd sit in a waiting room and wait for me to bring out Phil's body, cause a distraction (probably faint or maybe even a heart attack) and then I'd sneak Phil out of the building and into the back of PJ's car. 

There were millions of loopholes in the plan, such as: how would I take Phil's body with alerting the doctors and the nurses? And how would I get Phil's body to PJ's car? Just quickly take his bed for a spin in the car park? A likely story.

Before I wimped out from all the excuses being made in my head I walked to the front desk, Phil's ghost next to me, fading by the second. We had to hurry this up. 

"Hi, I was here the other day? Visitor for Phil Lester?", I spluttered out in a hurry. "Right, are you here to say your last goodbyes?", the kind woman behind the desk asked, handing me a clipboard to add my details. "Huh?", I gulped, kind of already suspecting what was about to be said. "The poor dear's having his life support switched off", she frowned. I pushed the forms back at her and made my way to Phil's room. 

In accordance with the plan I had ten minutes to come up with something to sneak Phil out the room before PJ caused his commotion. It was heartbreaking to see Phil's body, wasting away in this bed. I reached out for his hand and cried into it. Why did this happen to me? I finally find someone I could actually spend the rest of my life with and he might die on me. Tragic. 

Before it dawned on me that ghost phil was still in the room he coughed, signifying he was still in the room even if he weren't in his body at the moment. "Still feels nice, the hand holding", he smiled looking over his left hand. "I hope I can hold your hand as soon as this is done, Dan". He looked up, staring into my eyes. "If this doesn't work, you need to visit me, haunt me, because I'll miss you too much", I cried, wiping my tears and snot on my wrist. 

"Before we do this Dan, I want you to know something", Phil croaked, moving closer to me so his voice was barely a whisper in my ear. " From that first moment I saw you I had a feeling you were something great, something big, something that was about to turn my world upside down. I love you, Dan", and before I knew, Phil disappeared. He was dying.

I checked the time in the room, perfect timing. I disconnected all the wires and rushed the hospital bed out the room. It was too late, a doctor, with Phil's brother Martin, had already spotted me. I quickly ran down to the elevator, pushing and kicking anyone who came in the way. There were shouts, but they couldn't stop me. I had to save Phil. 

I made it to the elevator and made it to the bottom floor before being hounded by officers brandishing guns. This was it. Phil would die and I would be arrested. I looked at Phil's heart monitor, he would be flat-lining in a minute or so's time. I leant down to Phil's level and held his body. 

"I'm sorry, Phil. Please don't go", I sobbed in his shoulder. I slowly pressed my lips to his still lips, tears from my eyes dripping on his face. "I love you too, Phil". I whispered. Phil's monitor flatlined. We were too late. Being distracted sobbing over Phil enough an officer managed to tackle me down. But before he could take me away, Phil's monitor started beeping back up. The slow beeping piercing through the room enough for everyone to turn towards his body. Multiple doctors and nurses had made audible gasps. 

Phil was coming back. I could almost feel his soul being ripped away from me and returning to his rightful place. I almost felt like I was missing something. Phil was rushed off into another hospital room. Meanwhile I was carted off to the local police station. How I'd get out of this, I had no idea, but Phil was back. My Phil. And we could hold hands as much as we want.  
*TWO WEEKS LATER*

"So they've finally let you go, have they?", PJ quipped as I hauled my body in the passenger seat of his car. "Rooky mistake if you ask me, you need locking up", he laughed. I slupped over in the seat putting my head between my lap. "How did they let you off, then?", he asked, clearly trying to break my silence. 

How did I manage to get out of that one? Throughout the two whole weeks I had been trying to convince the officers I wasn't in need of a psychiatric assessment. They thought I was crazy and I made up the story about Phil. He finally woke up after 6 further days and made a miracle recovery. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me see him and they told me he refused to tell them anything. He didn't press charges so they had to let me go. Phil didn't remember me but he was alive and that's was fine by me. Except it wasn't because what about the hand holding? And everything else we said we'd do once Phil was actually here? 

I told PJ a summary of my thoughts and he smiled. "You need to pick up your stuff!", he almost shouted in my ear. "And?", I asked. "He'll be there, it'll be nice to see him one last time", PJ insisted, pulling out the car park of the police station and driving me towards the flat I once rented. "That sounds like torture", I muttered but let PJ take me there. I had to get this over with.

When we pulled up, the block of flats looked how it had before: Boring, bland and falling apart but there was still something homely about this place. 

"I quickly made my way to my old flat and hesitantly knocked. It had been two minutes of silence and I started thinking that perhaps Phil had gone out, maybe he'd gone for a walk, or to the shops or maybe he was staying with his brother until he fully recovered, but all my thoughts were confirmed to be wrong when Phil answered the door. Fully there Phil, he was actually there. 

He smiled at me and I started to think he might've remembered who I was but then he asked "Can I help you?", he was so polite. My Phil. Not my Phil anymore. 

"I've come to pick my things up", I muttered, my mood dampening down. "Ohh, you're Dan, right? Miracle lips I've started calling you", he smiled cheekily at me, winking. Wow, real Phil was a bit of a flirt. 

"Thanks. Can I just...?", I asked, making quick work of picking my thing up. Phil making polite chit-chat as I boxed everything up. On the last few things, I pulled a box of cereal out. "Here. You can keep it, you ate a lot of it when... yeah", I said, handing over the box of cereal. "Thanks", he said, before smiling again and leading me to the door.

"Thanks Phil", I muttered. 

"Dan, how's Darryl and PJ?", Phil asked, smiling at me like he knew something I didn't. "PJ's good, Darryl's, well, Darryl... Hang on. You remember PJ and Darryl?", I asked, feeling annoyed that he remembered those two and not me. "Well, of course I do Dan!", he said, still smiling. 

I stood by the door and Phil strolled over to me. "You know, there's something I really want to do", he drawled before grabbing my hand and holding it. "Still so warm", he hummed with a small smile on his face. "I'm an idiot", I groaned loudly before pouncing on Phil and attacking his lips. "And that's something I've always wanted to do". I breathed. 

"Well, if you're prepositioning me, Mr Howell, please remember, I've already seen you stark naked.", Phil chuckled. "Please don't remind me", I groaned against his chest. "But you have such a nice bum, Dan", Phil laughed, leaning up to peck my lips. 

"Don't worry, you'll see it again soon enough", I whispered in his ear. 

"Is PJ waiting for you downstairs?", Phil asked after tangling our bodies further together. "Hmm. Should I tell him he can go?", I said, drawing patterns on Phil's skin. "You could, or we could stay here and, to conserve our body heat, cuddle", Phil smiled. "Sounds like a plan", I whispered, drawing our bodies closer. 

^^ The end ^^


End file.
